Chapter 1

Growing up in Accra

I grew up in Accra, Ghana's capital, the third of six children. I went to primary school and high school there, and later I was lucky enough to go to boarding school.

Life in Ghana in those days taught you to make do. The electricity came and went. Clean drinking water was never a given. There was no hot water at all, so on cold mornings we boiled water on the stove for a warm bath. I loved soccer, taught myself piano, and read every comic book and science fiction story I could find. That is where my love of technology started.

Neither of my parents had a college degree. They made sacrifices I only understood much later, so that every one of their children could go to college. My mother never went to college herself, but she made sure all of us did. She even sponsored six foster children through high school. That was who she was.

Chapter 2

A long way from home

In December 2008, I landed in the United States to start college at Brigham Young University-Idaho. My older brother, Theo, had already been here for about six years, and he helped me make the journey.

Rexburg was a shock. The cold. The wide-open farmland. It felt like the middle of nowhere. The food was new, and so, in a way, was the language. I spoke English, but the British kind. American English came with its own words and slang, and I had to learn what people actually meant. The culture shock was daunting. But I adjusted, I learned, and I found my feet faster than I expected.

I later transferred to Utah State University, where I earned my bachelor's degree in technology systems. I came to Utah for an internship, stayed for work, and made it home.

Chapter 3

Children under a tree

In 2021, my brother-in-law sent me a video. It showed a group of children having class under a tree, because they had no proper classroom. I could not stop thinking about them. I wanted to help.

I called my mom and told her. She listened, and then she said something I will never forget: "Why don't we go to my village? Charity begins at home."

My mother was born and raised in Mepe, in Ghana's Volta Region. Growing up in the city, I had never been there. So in 2021, at about 36 years old, I went to Mepe for the first time, with her. She showed me where she came from. Then she took me to meet the children of Dadome DA Basic School.

Chapter 4

The day we met 600 dreamers

It was a beautiful, sunny day. The children were still in class when we arrived, but word travels fast in a village. One by one, they trickled out of their classrooms to come and meet us. Someone handed us fresh coconuts as a welcome. We sat with the headmaster and the school's leaders and talked about what we could do together.

I fell in love with those children that day. We started Dreamers Wish Foundation, my mother and I, and a few amazing friends from Utah said yes before there was anything to believe in but a dream. Together we raised our first $3,600 and gathered donated school supplies. We spent the money in Ghana, to support the local economy, on school uniforms and supplies, and we refurbished four classrooms. We handed out backpacks, shoes and uniforms.

We partnered with a local Ghanaian nonprofit, the Dream Feet Foundation, to paint inspiring murals inside the classrooms and on the school blocks. And we let the children paint their own classroom walls. You should have seen their faces. It was their school now. They belonged there.

Chapter 5

A playground with a fence

We kept going back, every year. The school blocks are fully painted now. And we built a playground, the first playground in the entire community.

We put a fence around it on purpose. It opens at recess, during school. If you want to play, you come to school. The school reported that attendance rose by about 25 percent. Children came back to play, and they learned while they were there.

I think of Bismark. When we met him, he had no shoes and no backpack. Today he has both, and the school supplies to go with them, and a playground that keeps him excited about school. He looks forward to going every single day.

Ask Bismark what he dreams of, and he will tell you: "I want to become a pilot so I can fly my family on planes." Keeping one child like Bismark in school, with a dream that big, is what this is all about.

There are so many children back home who are just as bright as I was, or brighter. They don't need a handout. They need a hand up.

Chapter 6

The year I almost quit

I won't pretend this has been easy. The work takes everything you have. We have no full-time staff. We run on volunteers who give their time, their money and their hearts. Some days it feels like you are carrying it alone.

By 2024, I was burned out. We hadn't reached where I hoped we would be. We had applied for grant after grant, and received nothing, from the state, from the government, from anyone.

Ainsley, my girlfriend at the time and now my wife, saw it. She told me to keep going, and to remember why I started. It was exactly what I needed to hear. I am so grateful to her.

So we kept going. This year, the grants finally started to come, including a $10,000 Capacity Grant from the Utah Division of Multicultural Affairs, funded by IKEA, to help us build a stronger foundation. It took years of asking. I'm glad we didn't stop.

Chapter 7

Carrying her mantle

On March 12, 2025, my mother passed away suddenly. Just a couple of months earlier, I had been with her in Ghana. She was radiant, full of joy, and couldn't wait to meet her grandchildren.

Losing her threw a wrench into everything: how I thought, how I saw the world. It had always been me and her against the world. Now she had left me a mantle I didn't feel ready to carry, and I had to keep moving without her by my side.

I haven't carried it alone. My family and friends held me up. And when we returned to the school after her passing, the students gathered and sang her favorite song, "I Have a Dream," for her, and for us. I believe she is watching over us still.

Chapter 8

The power of love

People ask me what keeps me going. For me, the craziest thing we could ever do is stop believing in the power of love. We are told to love our neighbor as ourselves. My mother lived that every day.

“A blessing only fulfills its mission if it transforms more than the one who received it.”Mama Josephine

I was blessed with parents who sacrificed, a brother who opened a door, friends who said yes, and Ainsley, who told me to keep going. Dreamers Wish Foundation is how I pass that blessing on. I hope you'll help us pass it on too.

Godwill Ekow Tandoh
Founder & President, Dreamers Wish Foundation